Szabó Pál

Latin

In most antique and medieval geographical and historical works Scythia is described as an extensive land with altering borders. Th e present study examines Scythia as a gradually forming geographical concept. My starting point was the description of Scythia and the Hungarian Kingdom by the Italian humanist and historian, Antonio Bonfi ni (1427–1503). Th e introduction of Bonfi ni’s monumental book (Rerum Ungaricarum decades) is a very important passage, because the author intended to synthesize the geographical knowledge of antique authors and of his contemporaries about Scythia. Until now, this introduction has hardly been examined; it was mainly regarded as a meaningless mass of data, and thus ignored by many Hungarian scholars (Zoltán Gombocz, Péter Kulcsár). In order to defi ne Scythia geographically, we need to collect and compare data from the sources which were used by Bonfi ni. Th ree traditional defi nitions can be diff erentiated. Aeschylus, Herodotus, PseudoScylax and Scymnus put Scythia in Europe; according to them, it was bordered by the Th anais and Phasis rivers. Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder and Strabo distinguished between European and Asian Scythia. Th e third type of description defi ned only Asian Scythia (Ptolemy, Pappus of Alexandria, Orosius) and introduced the concept of European and Asian Sarmatia. Medieval authors usually adopted the second type of description, the ‘double’ Scythia (Iordanes, Isidorus Hispalensis, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomineus and Johannes de Th urocz). Th us, it was not an easy task for Bonfi ni to combine the description of the ‘double’ Scythia and Sarmatia with the traditional approach of the Hungarian chronicles which presented European Scythia (Iustinus, Exordia, Regino, Simon Kézai, 14th-century Chronicle Composition). Th e complexity of the ‘double Scythia’ concept can be examined only by considering all these factors

University of Szeged

Hol is van Szkítia? : egy földrajzi fogalom történeti topográfiai változásairól = Where is in fact Scythia? Thoughts on the historical-topographical change of a geographical concept

http://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/34417/1/belvedere_2014_003_022-048.pdf

Hol is van Szkítia? : egy földrajzi fogalom történeti topográfiai változásairól

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University of Szeged